No lamb, no garden, no immaculate conception but there IS something about me.

6.28.2012

I have an unholy love for Banana Republic. Actually, if you were to go through my closet you would find a pretty solid trifecta of BR, JCrew and BCBG.

BR I love because their clothes are good quality and fit me really well. They sell petites but they're not super tiny petites made to fit first graders which is how a lot are. I'm a small person but I'm not skinny. Just the facts.

JCrew I love because it is absolute preppy perfection and I'm pretty darn preppy. I've been obsessed with bracelets for well over a year now but I like them small and stackable which JCrew seems to understand. As for their clothes their pants and I don't get along but their shirts and dresses are amazing.

BCBG is one stop shopping for evening wear. I believe pretty strongly in buying dresses before you need them because as soon as you have an event to attend you will never find the right dress for it if looking last minute. However, if you find the perfect dress before you need it, buy it and eventually you will. I promise. And BCBG dresses are AMAZING and fit so well (at least, when I'm a size 6. I'm not allowed to buy any in a size 10 so I wouldn't know about double digit fit. It's just a personal rule.)

The issues with my love of these three stores are that none of them are cheap and I'm not exactly rolling in extra cash. I mean, how could I be when the bun eats her weight in pellets daily? (She's supposed to have her food measured out but I travel for work and it's not happening so in another year or so she will probably be the perfect size for a new ottoman which is actually pretty great, I'm really into multitasking).

The great thing about these three stores is they ALL have great sales if you stalk them properly. Take for instance this dress from Banana Republic:

I tried this on two or three months ago and fell in love immediately. I've had an obsession with all things white, especially clothes, since the womb and make it lace-like and I'm ugly-crying in the corner of a dressing room like a five year old because it's $100 and I can't take it home RIGHT THEN. Usually when this happens I try to rationalize and decide if I really can't live without it or if I can wait. Of course, I can never live without it but I force myself to wait anyway because my willpower and masochism are legendary. After I make the decision to wait I begin the stalking process. I will go back to the store every few weeks to see if it's on sale yet and will visit the website of whatever it is that I want and when it finally goes on sale I rejoice! Or I sob when I miss out on it. I missed out on the perfect pair of Anne Klein nude heels three years ago because I waited too long and I'm still in therapy about it. (Also, if you want to know how I have so much time to stalk clothing the truth is when you travel for work you have a lot of free time in random cities where you don't know anyone. Some days. Other days you roll into your hotel at midnight and have to leave it at 6am the next day with a keyboard imprinted in your face from when you passed out on your laptop at 2am trying to write your trip reports. It's a glamorous life, I tell ya.)

So here's how it went down with this dress: I tried it on when it was full price a few months ago and when I happened to have a 30% off coupon for a regular priced item that day but I felt like $70 was still too much (I did convince a long distance friend to buy it though after I posted a pic on Twitter which meant I have spent two months seething in jealousy). Instead of buying it right then I checked when I went into the mall periodically and after two months I finally found it in the clearance section online for $79.99 last weekend with an extra 20% off sale prices and free shipping, bringing it to $63.99. That still wasn't that low but as I had really wanted it for two months I decided to just buy it and not wear it and see if it would go lower. Well lo and behold last night all the sale items were an extra 40% in store so I went to the mall and guess what?? They had one! In my size! (And by "my size" I mean a size smaller than I actually am because I like to torture myself). So I snatched it up for a whopping $47.99 which is less than 50% off. I don't usually like to spend that much on dresses that are for daily wear but I really wanted it and I'm in love with it. Funny thing is the one I ordered online still isn't at my house yet but I am returning it as soon as it arrives to get my $16.00 back and that's how it's done.

This may be my first post about my shopping "kills" (as my mom calls them since I learned how to be frugal from her and my grandma which makes this a time honored family tradition) but I promise it will not be my last. One of these days I will post about the $118 Ann Taylor watercolor skirt that I wanted more than life itself and ended up scoring for $12. No joke. Extreme couponing has no place in my life because I'd rather focus on clothes than food.

6.27.2012

I spent the majority of today with a kitty attached to my shoulder. The best part of my job is all of the hospital kitties I get to meet because they ALL act like no one loves them and gives them attention when in actuality they have an entire veterinary hospital full of staff and clients spoiling them at all time so I know better. But this lady wanted to perch on my shoulder and watch everything I did which was ok except that someone has been giving her far too many snacks as she was a bit portly. She also kept slapping me in the face with her tail when I had the audacity to move. The nerve of me.

My hair isn't really that orange anymore, it's the filter I used in Instagram. It was a birth though.

I've been obsessed with rose gold for the last year. It's just a color that looks really great with my (super pale red haired chick) skintone and I love how it's a little different. I've been wanting a rose gold watch for a while but given that I have ridiculous tastes every watch I wanted was $200+. In the grand scheme of things that isn't a huge amount for a piece of jewelry that I would wear every single day for years but it IS given three things:
-I would most likely be beating the snot out of it at work (my Kate Spade resolution bracelet looks like it's been through a war).
-I have some sort of weirdly acidic skin that eats through metal when I wear it too much and every single watch I have ever had has ended up with huge pit marks in the band from my skin. It's awesome being a mutant.
-I hypervenhilate over spending that much money on anything...except Kate Spade which is why I almost caved on a rose gold Kate watch this week. Almost.

None of these didn't stop me from dreaming though and here are some examples of what I've spent the last 6 months drooling over (I just had to pick baked potato out of the keys of my laptop to keep typing this, don't judge):

But today I went to Target (for unrelated things that I promptly forgot as soon as I walked through the doors) and remembered I had seen some other bloggers with a rose "gold" watch that looked like a pretty decent comparison. I figured I would check them out but I didn't want to spend more than $30 (and I really just wanted to see what it looked like in person). Imagine my surprise when I was able to find the exact watch (there was only one left) and it was only $14.99 AND it didn't look like something I would find at the dollar store. SOLD!

It's a lot more pink in person but I use my iphone for all picture so that's as good as it gets.

And I love it. For $14.99 I can beat the snot out of it and my mutant body can eat away at whatever metal it's made out of and I won't feel guilty. It will also give me time to decide if I really want to fork over the money for a better quality watch (aka beg for it as a combined Christmas/birthday present). PLUS I now have more money to spend at Banana Republic and on strawberries for the bun! It's a win-win-win situation.

6.24.2012

I think I must hate my Mizunos. And I think that because I noticed all I've been wearing lately are my Ravennas and I noticed that because I got THREE blisters today, one of which was in the middle of my foot. I took my shoe and sock off twice during my run thinking I had a rock or kitty litter in it (Trixie likes to shove both of her paws as far as she can get in my shoes and dig in them, it's still a mystery) but I never found anything. Then when I got home and took a shower I realized I felt like I was still stepping on something and lo and behold...a massive blister where no blister should be. Wanna see it?

HOW DO YOU EVEN GET A BLISTER THERE?? And you're welcome for the literal and not figurative view of my injury.

Now I need to figure out if there is a statute of limitations for returning those Mizunos to Fleet Feet because I need new Ravennas asap. And by asap I mean next week because I went to the grocery store and Ulta (in my desperate attempt to track down Essie's Tarte Deco nailpolish to create the perfect ombre manicure with A Crewed Interest and Haute As Hello but alas they are still out) and it turns out that having a blister in the middle of your foot makes you waddle like, as my dad would say, John Wayne so there's no way I'm leaving the house again to go to Fleet Feet today. But blisters in weird places are a sure sign that your shoes are far past their lifetime, at least for me. Next up will be another bruised toenail and I'd like to avoid that since in another four months or so the current one I have had since February should be gone.

As for my training this week (is it week five? Yes?) it was eh. Work, again, was as crazy as I expected and I was as beat as I expected. I did get a really good run in yesterday, my stomach was raging an epic battle with me that slowed me down (I have the worst stomach of all time) but I felt great for the running parts of it. So great in fact that even though yesterday was my long run day of seven miles I decided that I should do the same thing today. Not my brightest idea ever since you should have some rest between long runs but even though I felt a lot slower I was only 2 minutes slower which was awesome.

I was thinking today that I won't have the motivation I've had to train once the Boilermaker is over so I want to try and find a half marathon for the fall...or August or September or whatever. I've started looking and I have some options but I really like my halves to be special unlike most shorter races where I will run anything. Maybe it's because I've only done two so far but I like them to mean something so I don't want to just run one to run one. And I HAVE to get a medal at the end, it's a requirement. Let me know if you know of any and I will keep you all posted since I know you're dying to know ;) I do have a dream race lined up for February and as soon as I officially sign up for it I will tell you all about it.

Also, confession time...I downloaded the MapMyRun app yesterday and it is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. I rescind everything I ever said about running without something telling you your mileage in your ear along with your pace and THEN mapping the entire thing so you can compare it day to day. AMAZE!

In other awesome, amazing news as of yesterday...

I HAVE OFFICIALLY LOST 30LB!

That's right kids, 30lb gone of the 55lb I gained from not running and being a stupid dumbass in love. That means only 25lb to go until I am at the weight I was at about a year and a half ago and 40lb until I hit my ultimate goal weight (I stopped losing weight when I started my job and understandably so because I travel all the stinkin' time). I'm pretty happy about it and have started squirreling away cash for an awesome prize for when the next 25lb are gone. When I hit 75lb lost before I bought my first iphone (now I carry around two, one for work and one for home so the excitement of that has worn off) and my mom was "supposed" to buy me a Tiffany's necklace when I hit 100lb lost but she conveniently forgot that conversation. No biggie, the amount of clothes I bought made up for it ;)

In relation to that I have a new obsession as of yesterday and I know it won't go away anytime soon which is baked potatoes. Now that they are in my head I won't be able to go a day without eating one, much like my grape obsession a month or two ago (which was killed when grapes went out of season and now they're sour with tough skin). Also, I just bought sugar free Klondike bars while I was waddling through Wegman's to see what they were like and they're ok. They have some flavor but not a lot, I think it's good for my massive sweet tooth that I've had lately but I don't think I would choose them if I wasn't off sugar. I swear if I could throw myself into the chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I would happily die of aspiration pneumonia or drowning just to do so in chocolate.

I thought it appropriate to post my Klondike bar next to my favorite running blog of the cutest girl EVER who runs crazy amounts every day and is somehow always ecstatic about it. Believe you me, I'm not ecstatic right now.

These posts always get so long and I always have five million more things to say. Someday I will start posting daily...someday. I want to start posting about fashion and things since I have had a lot (and by a lot I mean four) of girl who have asked me to so be looking for (aka avoiding) that.

6.17.2012

Is it normal to fill the hard drive of a 16g iphone? Probably not for the normal human being that really just uses it for email, taking pictures, listening to the same song on repeat, watching youtube and playing Temple Run until their eyes bleed (there was a new version just released and you better believe that took up the majority of my Friday night) but once a week or so my phone tells me I don't have enough memory to take another picture and I still can't delete enough stuff on it to upgrade the software. It probably has something to do with the 2500 pictures (no joke) I have on it but you can't erase memories! At least that's what I will continue to tell myself until I am forced to put them all on my Macbook and delete them from my phone *sob*

Anyway, as I was going through my phone deleting pictures so that I could take yet another photo of something ridiculously adorbs the bun was doing (no idea what it was but I can promise it was not her newest trick of using my FACE to launch herself onto the ottoman) I found a picture of me in my favorite dress that I took in April and I just happened to take another picture in the same dress the other day. Of course I needed to splice them side by side and guess what?

Left picture was taking in April 2012 and the right was June 2012

It looks like this running 5 days a week/crying over no sugar/sobbing over no carbs thing is working. Hallelujah! (And if you can't see a difference please don't tell me because in my head the two pictures are the equivalent of comparing Rosie O'Donnell to Gisele). Also, what do I need to do to be as tall as I look on the right? Because anything over 5'2" would be amazing. Also squared, I am really glad to be rid of that awful Kate Spade iphone case, it looks pretty but it was awful. Can I say awful enough about that case? AWFUL.

My Boilermaker training went ok-ish this week, ok in that I ran, not in that I wussed out on many of the runs. To be fair this week at work was brutal (with the next two weeks doubling that) and Father's Day was today which meant I spent almost all five miles crying like a damn loon. I ran though and that's what matters and I'm hopefule this week will be better. I already have plans to get up at 5:30am tomorrow to be done with my run before I have to leave.

But what keeps me running? Refer to picture above combined with this and there is my motivation in a nutshell.

I just realized that my elbow is sunburned from driving today. Fist pound to the other pale white girls who understand my pain, I also have a weird patch on my back from not being able to put sunscreen on it yesterday (SPF 70 btw).

Can I tell you a secret? I have no desire to do laundry today so I will be running in dirty socks tomorrow and it won't be the first time that's happened. And now you know.

6.10.2012

My ipod died today and I'm pretty upset about it. It's the same ipod nano I've had since 2007 (I have another ipod but it's not the same shape and I let someone else use it for a year so it's full of bagpipe music that I am too lazy to figure out how to clear) so it's the longest relationship I've ever had. I'm not exactly sure what happened to it but I would be willing to guess that it has something to do with my dumb ass thinking it would be a good idea to run with it in my sports bra for the last 3 months. Sweat does nothing good for my hair so I can't imagine it does anything good for my ipod either. Can we have a moment of silence for my sweet little third gen ipod nano?

(UPDATE! I went to go take a picture of it and after drying out and a recharge it lives! I haven't plugged in my headphones yet to see if it's still making the crackling death cry it was earlier but I'll wait until tomorrow to push it).

In the meantime I'll provide you with a stock picture of its light blue amazingness while I allow it to recuperate on the charger.

I take the death of my ipod as a direct sign that I need to wean myself off of it and what better time to die than 1.5 miles into a 7 mile run? If you've been following my training plan (which I doubt you have because I can't even remember it unless I look it up) then last week my long run was 5 miles so this week I was supposed to bump it up to six. Somehow I ended up doing 7 though which is ok, better more than less. It wasn't a good run though: I was upset about my ipod, it was 80 degrees and humid by the time I started running at 10:30am (there was a race at the lake today so I wanted to wait for it to be done) so if felt like running through bath water and I hadn't had dinner last night so I was going on less than empty. The good news is that I did it although now I kind of want to die. Next week will be better!

Training Log, Week 3 (a day late):
Sunday: 5 miles
Monday: Dr appt so no running
Tuesday: 5 miles split (3 in am, 2 in pm)
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: RAIN! So no running

Total mileage for the week: 15

After my run I went to a waterfall I really love with a friend of mine which was a good time. I feel pretty lucky to live in a place where waterfalls are so abundant because they're my favorite and if I could spend every day at waterfalls my life would be complete.

Yes, that is a picture of me on the internet with no makeup on and my hair looking like hale. You're welcome.

Oh! I also finished painting my bedroom last night! Which, coupled with the 7 mile run this am, is the reason I can not move off this couch right now (so if someone could come clean out the bun's mansion that would be great). I really love the color and I can't wait to start changing things around and redecorating it because, you know, that's what Pinterest tells me I should do even though no one cares but me.

Sorry for the bad lighting, it was late. And no, I do not like that book as there is much talk of dead animals that I was not warned about so I doubt I will finish it.

It wasn't anything that I did that ruined it, I tried two different kinds of coconut milk that wouldn't set up properly. One can kind of did so I tried to make it anyway but I had to put a lot of sugar in it (I can't use stevia which is what the recipe calls for) which defeats the purpose of it being a healthy frosting replacement that I can eat directly from the bowl with no cake required. Oh well, at least I tried.

6.05.2012

My college roomate stalked my house today, like legit showed up on my doorstep and then posted a picture on my facebook for me to find of her being here. She was in the area for the college reunion this past weekend and she wanted to meet up today for lunch but I have that evil thing called a JOB that I keep showing up for because the bun eats exorbitant amounts of organic spring mix so I couldn't meet her. She left me presents instead one of which was this AWESOME shirt:

I have no Ohio State affiliation other than that she lives there but now I have a shirt to remind me of her with Hello Kitty on it which is a winning combo.

Today I got home from work at 4:30pm which is crazy talk. I want you to know that I love my job, I truly do. But I would be a huge liar if I didn't admit that sometimes it's really hard to not have a normal life with friends and things to do after work and getting home (to your own house) at a reasonable hour because you're too busy travelling all over God's creation. Therefore being home and done with work at 4:30 today was amazing and gave me tons of motivation to do things I usually can't (after a 20 minute nap on the couch that is...the bun talked me into it!).

This morning I ran for 3 miles but since I was home so early I decided to run for a few more miles. I headed to the lake, waited in the parking lot through a little torrential downpour, and then ran two hard interval miles. The first mile I pushed hard and guess what?? I RAN AN 8 MINUTE MILE!!! So, I am well aware of the fact that that isn't really fast but it's way better than what I've been doing. The next mile I alternated fast and slow and went home an exhausted mess. I will tell you this though: my Urban Decay 24/7 liquid eyeliner stayed put even through all the sweat because it's phenomenal and I never doubted it for a second.

I'm really glad that I ran 5 miles total today because I needed to work off the cake I ate last night. It was allowable cake because I've spent a lot of time at the doctor lately so every time I have to go I allow myself a piece of cake as a reward like I'm 5. However, just because I've ok'd it in my head doesn't mean I don't then need to work it off so that's what I did today since yesterday was a rest-and-eat-cake day. Also, I am outraged over how orange the lighting in the dr's office makes my hair, behold:

I guess it doesn't look that bad in the picture but in person it's ridiculous. The good news is I look fantastic in the shade of blue their gowns are in.

After my second run I came home and started painting my bedroom. I painted the smallest wall in the room so naturally I feel super accomplished, as I should. I am kind of missing the blue already but I think it will be a good change. I hope? I might cry about it though, no joke, but if I don't like it in another month or two I can just repaint it (not like I haven't done that before).

Did you know that tomorrow is National Running Day?? I won't be able to run most likely (maybe tomorrow night) but I will be in spirit with all of you who DO get to run! So get out there!

6.02.2012

Am I the only one totally, ridiculously excited that Blue Crush is on tv right now? Probably. This movie is so awful yet I used to watch it on repeat back in college and I would tell you why if I had a clue. Which I don't.

Today was a fantastic day for my running and I will tell you why: I ran 4 miles without even thinking about stopping! I know that this seems minor but before today I was letting myself stop whenever I felt like it. No because I needed to, mind you, because every time that I get in the car after my run I feel like I could have gone farther (although to be fair I used to feel that way after 10 mile runs). But because I will literally just stop out of nowhere, walk for a little bit and then start running again. It's a totally mental thing, I have the physical capability of doing it but I have a mental block against it. Today I overcame it which means that good things are on the horizon.

I wore my Ravennas today and I didn't get any blisters. I'm not sure which shoes I'll wear tomorrow for my long run but I'd probably guess my Ravennas. Next week I'll go back to my Mizunos and see how things go. If they make my feet worse again I'll take them back and start from the top.

Here are a few pictures to round out the week (because a blog without pictures is a blog I don't want to read):

There was some good mud on the trail today from all the rain yesterday. The kind of mud where you think you have solid footing but as soon as your foot lands you're hydroplaning. I like it.

The bun was super lovey last night. She looks terrified but I swear it's just that whole "eyes on the side of her head" thing. Currently she is trying to eat the tape off a box and cause a intestinal blockage for herself.

I've mentioned it before but I read the blog of a super awesome girl named Bethany. I do not believe that there is a difference between real life friends and blog friends and therefore I count her as a friend now but long before she knew I stalked her blog she wore this dress. I coveted it above all else because rose gold and I are meant to be in a solid, long term relationship and after months of looking I finally found one of my own! It arrived yesterday and my life is now complete. I have no idea where I am going to wear it yet but who cares? it's mine and that's all that matters.